Monday, 19 September 2016

King Carrion.

King Carrion is
the new novella from Rich Hawkins and is published by The Sinister HorrorCompany. Both author and publisher are on a bit of a roll at the moment with a
veritable flood of literary delights washing over the horror landscape. It’s
often the case that quantity is inversely proportional to quality but that certainly
isn’t the case for Sinister Horror – who are producing some top-notch books –
or Rich himself who continues a run of consistently entertaining horror stories
with this novella, his take on vampire lore.

The novella opens with a deeply atmospheric prologue set in 49
AD Northern England. It’s a stunning opening to the book which I loved every
moment of. There’s much dramatic imagery on display here, and some lovely
prose. I loved the line “The wind mourned the loss of another day.” The opening
sets the scene brilliantly, and introduces the titular character, a creature of
darkness – its face hidden behind swaddled rags, tainted with the smell of
death and corruption…

All jolly stuff then, and topped up with a multiple sacrifice.
The Romans are coming however, and amongst the many things they did for us was
to attempt to wipe out pagan beliefs in their occupied territories and so it is
that King Carrion makes his escape, hiding away from the world until the time
is right to emerge once again and claim dominion.

It’s a great prologue, and I wish it could have gone on longer
but, no sooner is the page turned than we’re transported to the modern day.
Enter Mason, an archetypal Hawkins protagonist, a man of sorrows, just released
from prison after serving time for causing a fatal road accident. Mason is
haunted by the accident, those terrors manifesting themselves in the form of
the Dead Girl, the innocent victim of his crime.

Mason’s journey back to see his wife lead him to a town in
southern England – at precisely the same time that King Carrion has returned
from his self-imposed exile. Cue much gory action and suspense as KC (and his
moonshine band) run riot through the streets, converting the populace to
vampires.

Nothing sparkles here except the prose; these vampires are
vicious, feral beasts who revel in the death and destruction they bring about. These
are definitely at the 30 Days of Night end of the vampire spectrum.

There are few who can write an action set-piece better than
Rich and he has a field day here, describing the numerous battles with the
vampire horde. What makes him an even better writer is that he can handle the quitter
stuff with aplomb too. There’s proper emotion going on here amidst the gore.

All things of course lead to a climactic encounter with King
Carrion himself at the vampire’s vividly described lair…

I loved King Carrion, a
great example of old-school horror delivered with style and gusto. My one
criticism of the book is that – as with the prologue – it’s too short. This
criticism is two-fold; firstly for selfish reasons – I wanted to spend more
time enjoying the book, but secondly because I think the material required a
longer form, there’s enough going on here to fill a novel easily.

There’s a scene where Mason glimpses a vision of King
Carrion’s past life and experiences which cried out for more detail and, as
mentioned earlier, the prologue could easily have been extended. Cramming so
much into a novella-length book certainly moves the story along at a cracking
pace but the world Rich has created here is one I think would definitely benefit
from a higher word count.

This minor quibble aside, I really do recommend that you
check this novella out. You’ll have a blast and at the same time enjoy the
writing of one of the future stars of the horror writing world. Rich already
has an impressive back catalogue and I’m certain this is indicative of great
things ahead.